Hermès presented its Spring 2027 menswear collection without a runway, music, or any of the usual season-opening theater. The company is currently in a transitional period, and it chose to spend this time saying almost nothing at all.
Véronique Nichanian left this past fall after thirty-seven years of shaping the house’s menswear into something recognizably its own. Her successor, British designer Grace Wales Bonner, won’t present her first collection until January. This leaves a strange, quiet period, which Hermès filled with a showroom presentation of about forty looks instead of a full show. No theatrics. Just clothes.
The in-house team, trained for years alongside Nichanian, stuck to what they know: There were breezy, collarless shirts, some in windowpane check, layered over ribbed tank tops. A cotton shirt printed with a small cowboy-and-horse motif was paired with a silkier one featuring a gaucho pattern, which was more theatrical by comparison. The palette stayed muted. There was pewter, faded blue, and ice white, as well as warmer notes of coffee, caramel, and chocolate.
The jackets were unlined and light. Some came with drawstring trousers – a small mercy on a hot day. Others were blousons with delicate openwork seams or chunky herringbone sweaters that could be worn as outerwear. Even the silk tie was rethought. It was shrunk and shortened and knotted loosely at the neck, as if nobody could commit to wearing one properly anymore.
As always at Hermès, leather did the heaviest lifting. A gray shirt featured a flamingo pattern so subtle that it required close inspection. A caramel jacket was pierced with nickel-sized holes, nodding to the house’s Mangeoire feed bag. One dark brown jacket featured white contrast seams reminiscent of old basketballs, and pinprick perforations in the shape of tiny boxes echoed patterns lifted straight from the house’s own ties. Trench coats mixed technical fabric with leather patchwork, and anoraks featured a subtle gaucho print for those heading outdoors.
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There was more leather, too. There was a lilac leather t-shirt with a laser-cut illustration. A gray leather aloha shirt that looked genuinely strange in the best way. Five-pocket leather trousers. There was a shaved calfskin zip-up blouson that looked built to age well rather than sit in a closet. Underlying it all was a low hum of 1950s Western wear: high-waisted silk-linen shirt jackets, naïve rodeo prints, and sweater vest cardigans in knit silk. In particular, a faded pink herringbone cardigan was the kind of piece you don’t expect to want until you’ve seen it.
None of these pieces reached for attention, and that restraint felt deliberate rather than cautious. There was a caramel jacket pierced with nickel-sized holes and openwork seams; a tie shrunk and loosely knotted at the throat; and an absence built quietly into nearly every piece. A weaker studio might have used the empty chair to audition for the job. This one didn’t bother.
Wales Bonner is the first woman of color to lead the design team at a major fashion house. Her own label is known for pairing sharp European tailoring with references to the African diaspora, sportswear, and archival research. What she inherits is a well-ordered house, its rooms aired out and ready. The Spring 2027 collection wasn’t designed to overshadow that narrative. It was designed to hold the door open until she arrives.
